New Orleans public schools are getting a big present under the Christmas tree: an extra $3.8 million for 2013. The windfall is due to home value assessments that came in above forecast. The schools' budget from property tax levies will be $124.6 million - almost $9 million more than the current year.

The board had already voted in May to raise property tax rates without updated property assessments - and expected to get $5.1 million in new revenue as a result. When the Orleans Parish Board of Review published the actual taxable home values on Nov. 2, the board realized the May rates would bring in a lot more money than expected. In effect, "we actually raised taxes about twice as much as we intended to," board president Thomas Robichaux said.

For the Algiers Charter School Association, which runs most of the public schools on the West Bank, the bigger budget adds "approximately $50,000 per school, which could easily translate into a teacher or a paraprofessional at each one," interim executive officer Adrian Morgan said at Tuesday's school board meeting.

On the taxpayer side, if you own a $200,000 home, and your home value is unchanged, your bill will be just over $21.40 more than last year. If your assessment went up, the difference would be greater still.

That's why the board chose to revisit the 2013 rates at its Tuesday meeting, Robichaux said: "We have a fiduciary duty to the taxpayer." In the end, the board opted not to make a change.

It was a harmonious end to a process that stirred up controversy earlier this year.

School property tax rates follow a complex pathway in Louisiana. Voters set the maximum rate, but the rate can be set lower by the School Board. When housing values increase, the OPSB must first "roll back" the tax rate to a level that will keep revenues flat. After that adjustment, the board may "roll forward" the rates up to the maximum, thus capturing new funds.

Though OPSB is in charge of only about one-quarter of the city's 88 schools -- the Recovery School District, a state body, oversees the rest -- it controls taxation for all the schools.

The 2013 tax roll, which was finalized in November, showed that the assessed value of property had gone up by 3% percent from the May estimates, meaning the School Board's windfall would be even bigger than anticipated.

The board's decision to revisit the rates triggered concern among advocates who feared losing May's gains. Said Caroline Roemer Shirley of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools, "Every additional dollar you can place in the classroom will be much needed and is an investment in the future of our city."

Dana Peterson of the Recovery School District also spoke in support of maintaining the increase.

Their concerns proved unfounded. "If there's no motion at all, it stays exactly as it is," Robichaux said. No members made a move to reconsider.